Welcome to Cruise Critic! If you'd like to participate on our forums by joining in the conversation, please Register Now! Be sure to visit our FAMOUS Roll Call forums, where you can meet other cruisers sailing with you and share a tour or shore excursion and SAVE MONEY!

I am sailing on Allure of the Seas on Dec 08 2013 and I receive this notice

November 14, 2013

We are writing to provide you with important information regarding your reservation on the Allure
of the Seas.

Allure of the Seas has been experiencing excessive and unanticipated bearing wear in one of its
three propulsion motors. All three motors are fully operational, and there is no impact on the
maneuverability of the ship or on the safety of our guests and crew. However, since the rate of
bearing wear is directly related to ship’s speed, we have had to limit the ship’s top speed. This
has reduced the rate of bearing wear and will ensure that all of three propulsion motors are fully
available for maneuvering and emergencies until repairs can be completed.

Due to the reduced speed it is necessary to make some minor adjustments to your original
itinerary. Allure of the Seas will now call on Nassau, Bahamas, from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and
on Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The rest of your itinerary will
remain unchanged.

Thank you for your understanding about the slight modification to your itinerary. As always, we
thank you for your ongoing support of Royal Caribbean International, and look forward to
welcoming you onboard.

Welcome to Cruise critic. As a new poster you may not be aware that this subject has been a topic for a while now and discussed in several threads. The email you received as a future passenger is to alert you to the change in port times resulting from the ship's reduced speed until this issue can be rectified during a planned dry dock scheduled during the week of 2/23/14. (Unfortunately the cruise for that week has been cancelled).

Other than the slight changes shown with your port times, nothing else regarding your cruise will be affected.

Motors? I guess technically they are electric motors, but nobody calls them that!

That is a subject all of its own. But on cruise ships there are very specific differences between "engines" and "motors" and each has their own function. Nearly all modern cruise ships have their propellers driven by Electric "Motors" which can sometimes be connected to a large propeller shaft or self contained as part of the popular Azipod systems. But these "Motors" need lots of electricity to function so the ship uses large "Engines" which are usually powered by Diesel Fuel (often called Bunker crude) to drive the generators that produce the electricity to drive the motors. Now this is very convenient because the engines can also produce the additional electricity necessary to power all the electric systems on a ship (i.e. lights, ovens, A/C, water systems, etc).

Bottom line is that if the Oasis and Allure each have 6 Diesel "Engines" which produce the electricity necessary to drive the 3 Azipod "Motors." If one of these Azipod motors has excessive bearing wear it will eventually have to be repaired. Just about all Azipod repairs are made in drydock wheras a problem with one of the Diesel "Engines" might possibly be repaired during normal operations.

That is a subject all of its own. But on cruise ships there are very specific differences between "engines" and "motors" and each has their own function. Nearly all modern cruise ships have their propellers driven by Electric "Motors" which can sometimes be connected to a large propeller shaft or self contained as part of the popular Azipod systems. But these "Motors" need lots of electricity to function so the ship uses large "Engines" which are usually powered by Diesel Fuel (often called Bunker crude) to drive the generators that produce the electricity to drive the motors. Now this is very convenient because the engines can also produce the additional electricity necessary to power all the electric systems on a ship (i.e. lights, ovens, A/C, water systems, etc).

Bottom line is that if the Oasis and Allure each have 6 Diesel "Engines" which produce the electricity necessary to drive the 3 Azipod "Motors." If one of these Azipod motors has excessive bearing wear it will eventually have to be repaired. Just about all Azipod repairs are made in drydock wheras a problem with one of the Diesel "Engines" might possibly be repaired during normal operations.

Ain't this a fun topic? LOL
Hank

The letter the OP posted was sent out to people who are booked on the Allure. Do you really think the average cruiser knows what an azipod is, let alone the fact that Allure has three of them? The cruiseline just dumbed down the letter for all the normal people in the world who aren't obsessed with everything cruising as people in this forum seem to be.

Just off the Allurethispast Sunday and captJohnny said they will go to the Bahamas for the repair. While not really a dry dock they will have a mechanism for getting the area where the pods are located out of the water in order to repair the one that has the bad bearings. Until then, the manufacturer requires that this pod not be run at max speed in order to minimize further problems. Guess they are responsible for the problem and it's' repair.

We too are on the same sailing (Dec 8th) and have not heard from Royal about this. We knew though thanks to others who have posted here on CC. We were able to prepare ourselves for this in advance and not book any excursions that may be affected. The one we had planned to book for St Thomas will be on hold until we get on the ship and confirm that it is still doable with the shortened time in port. Still very excited about going on this vacation and can hardly wait

Actually the techs on the ship are constantly maintaining the engines that generate the power that the ship needs for everything. The cannot be removed since they are so large.

But the "engines" are accessible during normal operations which means that no dry dock is necessary to repair them.

The main point of this engine/motor discussion is that Allure is not experiencing "engine" trouble. In this case it is a very important distinction becuase it means that Allure is not in any apparent danger of losing power and drifting like the two Carnival ships. No problems have been reported with the "engines" which are the source of all electrical power to the ship. And all three azipods [and all the bow thrusters presumably] are functional which means that, despite reduced speed, Allure can maneuver.

We were booked on the Allure for Feb 23 cruise. We received a call a couple of days ago informing us the cruise had been cancelled. We were offered several options to move to other dates, but the cabin we had booked was not available, nor were comparable ones available. We were also offered a $400 onboard credit. The offer was only for the few sailing we were given. We cancelled. I called today, got the cabin I wanted on a May 4 cruise with a $400 onboard credit.

The letter the OP posted was sent out to people who are booked on the Allure. Do you really think the average cruiser knows what an azipod is, let alone the fact that Allure has three of them? The cruiseline just dumbed down the letter for all the normal people in the world who aren't obsessed with everything cruising as people in this forum seem to be.

The average cruiser probably not only doesnt know but also doesnt care either